Christ Church Cathedral

Side A: In 1817 twenty-two men, including future President William Henry Harrison, chartered Cincinnati’s first Episcopal parish, Christ Church. In 1835 members erected a Gothic Revival-style church on this site. The neighborhood evolved as the city grew with the influx of immigrants. Parish women raised funds to teach, feed, clothe, and shelter tenement families, and alleviate suffering during floods and disease outbreaks. In 1883 the women helped establish what became Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. In 1909 members opened the Late Gothic-style Parish House, a community center with kitchen, classrooms, library, auditorium, clinic, gymnasium, and bowling alley. By the parish’s centennial in 1917, music had expanded beyond worship to public concerts. In 1940 the annual Boar’s Head Festival of music and pageantry began. Since the 1960s, members have collaborated with local agencies to advocate for social and economic justice, a mission continuing into the 21st century. (Continued on other side) Side B: (Continued from other side) Many church members were civic leaders and war veterans. They built soap and chemical factories, foundries, meat packing plants, riverboat, rail, and streetcar lines, retail stores, utilities, banks, publishing houses, schools, and public buildings. By 1925 they had helped organize charities under what became the United Way and helped found the City Charter Committee to fight city hall corruption. Among these families were Yeatman, Drake, Lytle, Pendleton, Foote, Procter, McGuffey, Longworth, Probasco, Strader, Kilgour, Emery, Anderson, Taft, and Rawson. In 1918 the parish consecrated the Gothic chapel and in 1957 a new church of mid-century design. In 1993 this church became the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. In addition to worship services, the cathedral hosts concerts, public forums, housing and food programs, and reading and art camps.